Transfer

I’d had an ambitious plan for the day, but my travel anxiety ended up getting the better of me, so I stuck with the local and familiar. I guess there is a limit to the number of big days out I can manage within a week. My anxiety load probably also  related to 19yo flying off to Paris to watch the Olympics on what will be his first independent (with a friend) travel abroad, although moderated by knowing that I went off inter railing around western Europe with friends at the same age. 

So off to Ilkley I went, first for a potter around town and then down to Ben Rhydding to catch Ilkley Town’s first competitive game of the season.

Over the summer, Ilkley Town have been subject to a ‘lateral transfer’ between the North West Counties League D1N and the North Counties East League D1. The leagues are at the same level (hence lateral) but as their names indicate have a different geographical footprint. It’s part of the rebalancing of numbers that the FA does on an annual basis across the football pyramid. In practical terms it brings Ilkley into a league with, broadly, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire teams instead of Lancastrian and Cumbrian clubs. As you can see there is much about non-league football to keep a geographer engaged :-)

Today’s visitors were Maltby Main (red), hailing from east of Rotherham. They finished bottom of the NCEL Premier Division last season, and hence were relegated to D1. Ilkley were on top for much of the game and saw out a comfortable 2-0 win, so a good start to the season for them.